


To Go Home

by PilotsRed



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bonding Moments, Fluff, Getting Together, HE CRADLED HIM IN HIS ARMS, Hurt/Comfort, Insecurity, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Post-Season/Series 06, before s7 even came out dfdgfhgf we been knew :/, if you read through keith's obliviousness, is this fluff??? idk, like..........really bad pining tbh, literally the softest thing i've written oh my god, season 7 fix it fic, teen for swearing and gushy romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 08:50:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15554070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PilotsRed/pseuds/PilotsRed
Summary: Team Voltron is finally back in their solar system when the Red Lion starts acting strangely.It takes a journey to Cuba to find out why.





	To Go Home

 

It’s when they reach Jupiter that Lance suddenly accelerates. The Red Lion is so fast there’s no way they or the altean pods can keep up, especially with the way Lance moves, fast and giddy like he’s got nothing to lose.

Either Lance has turned his comms off or he’s ignoring their yells, and Keith isn’t sure which is worse. He could chase after him, but he’s not completely mastered Black’s newfound ability, and he won’t leave the group behind, not when the galra could be near. 

Eventually the team falls into a low grumble. Keith is silent. Lance had been strange after they’d defeated Lotor. Allura and him had seemed very close, Keith had sworn he’d caught them embracing that one time. But after the fight, it was like Lance...drifted. 

Of course, Lance was still a good friend. Whenever anyone sought him out he was there. Most often he could be found with Shiro, still very tired in his new body, and therefore not prone to much conversation. He always seemed slightly surprised when Keith came to bother him, like he was unused to it. But why would he be? Everyone always wanted to spend time with Lance.

It was like it wasn’t Keith that had been gone two years. 

Lance was just so  _ different _ . When they were cornered by those robot bounty hunters, and Lance turned his bayard into a  _ sword _ , he didn’t even smirk when Keith just stared gobsmacked at him the whole fight and nearly got skewered. When he patched up Keith’s grazes later outside the red lion, he didn’t tease him. It left Keith aching for some reason, and if anyone noticed Keith seeking Lance out even more after that they didn’t say anything.

Keith knew he was being stupid, but he couldn’t help himself. To be the one to put that smile on Lance’s face, to make him laugh, it was addictive. It was a totally new feeling. He didn't understand why he hadn’t tried it before. But, then again, he hadn’t exactly been putting smiles on anyone’s faces before he left for the Blade. That had been Lance. 

It was his fault for missing it. For missing the moment Lance changed. But he could make up for lost time. They could be… friends? Again? It was easy to let the others drift into their own worlds and his mother had plenty of people to talk with, so Keith could devote most of his time to bothering Lance. 

He thought he’d been getting along better with Lance, even more so than before, but shooting off like that… Did he know the new Lance at all? Was this just another facet, another aspect of his mercurial personality Lance had polished and revealed, ready to change again just as Keith got used to it?

“Hey, Keith! Stop brooding!” Pidge jolts him from his reverie. 

“Just because Lance makes it a race, doesn’t mean you have to take part. Trust me, I’ve learned that the hard way.” Hunk says knowingly. 

“Thanks guys. We can tell him off when we get to earth.” Keith says with a grin. Allura joins in their laughter as they fly through the asteroid belt.

It’s hours later, but they arrive.

The red lion is at the Galaxy Garrison, but Lance isn’t. Samuel Holt smiles bemusedly when they ask after him. “It arrived empty and covered in sand, gave us quite the shock when it opened and no pilot came out!”

Keith feels a chill run through his bones, and he shares a panicked glance with Shiro. 

“Varadero,” Hunk breathes, and his eyes widen. 

“Pardon?” Says Allura.

“Lance went home,” He clarifies. “I- I had no idea he would shoot off like that, I figured he was racing us to the Garrison...”

Hunk looks stunned, and a little sick, and Pidge is looking anxiously between Allura and him, eyes wide and sad behind her glasses. 

Keith gets a sinking feeling in his stomach like he’s been left out of a secret. 

But then, maybe they all have.

***

It’s been a three days and a week, and there’s been no word from Lance. The team is agitated and distracted, and it’s making progress slow. Team morale is at an all time low, and Keith feels  _ helpless _ . It’s Lance that raises team spirit, but he has a feeling in his gut that they did  _ something  _ and they’re paying for it with his absence. It leaves an ache in his chest, and that makes him irritable.

The bulk of the work to do is highly technical or highly diplomatic, and he isn’t allowed to let off any steam by training. It’s the middle of a three way row between Allura, Pidge and himself over something completely inconsequential that Hunk finally snaps.

“Why don’t you go to Cuba and drag Lance here to shout at instead of shouting at us?!” He yells at Keith, and they all fall silent.

“Uhh….” Keith says. Faintly, he is aware his jaw dropped.

“Hey Hunk, I think you broke him.” Pidge says, and pokes Keith gently on the shoulder. “Did you forget you could fly wherever you wanted?”

“That’s an excellent idea Hunk,” Allura says with relief. “You should go right away Keith.”

Keith tries to ignore the feeling she’s getting rid of him. “Why would he listen to me?”

Allura looks to the side. “Well I, I just think he’d appreciate your word more than mine, and Hunk and Pidge are so busy...” She looks a little lost, and wistful. Pidge and Hunk won’t meet his eyes, and Keith feels again like he’s been left out of the loop.

“I trust your judgement on this, Allura. I’ll go.” He turns to leave.

“Hah, I love ordering Keith around! Hunk’s always right!” Hunk says behind him.

“Except about modulation,” Pidge mutters, turning back to her laptop.

***

He coaxes the black lion into a shuddering start and takes off over the Arizona desert. The sun is shining hard and bright, and doesn’t abate as he flies south easterly across the ocean. 

It’s when he receives an incoming transmission he realises he forgot to tell Shiro and his mother where he was going.

“Keith!” A shock of white fills the screen. They’d tried to dye it, but it was like no pigment would stick. A low grumble, and the camera moves and refocuses.

They both stood there, identical looks of parental concern. It was so startlingly  _ weird _ , Keith almost did a nose dive into the Gulf of Mexico. 

“I’m going to pick up Lance.” Keith said. Krolia and Shiro exchanged a glance.

“Keith… You know he may not want to come back?” Shiro said cautiously.

“Why not?” Wait, was that Miami? Maybe he’d gone too far.

“I have heard much of Lance’s family.” Krolia said. “It seems he has responsibilities to them.”

“But this is Voltron we’re talking about! He has responsibilities to the universe!”

“Does Voltron need him, or do you need him?”

Keith pulled his lion to a halt, hovering above the sea. “It’s the same thing, Shiro. You know that.”

“I don’t think Lance knows that. Keith, just--” Shiro sighed. “Don’t make him do anything he doesn’t want to do.”

Keith has no answer to that.

“We talked a lot on the journey home. I felt really guilty about how I’d--” Shiro refused to call his clone a clone. “--Treated him when Haggar was interfering with my mind. He’s  _ hurt _ , Keith. Lost, and confused… He needs to feel secure, so he can be himself, and we as a team couldn’t do that.”

“It doesn’t matter. I need him. I can’t fly Voltron without him.” Keith said. And it was true. Red wouldn’t open for anyone, loyal to his paladin to the last even as he sent the lion away. Blue was mourning according to Allura, and Black was flying poorly. Lance represented a vital link between the three lions, between every member of their team. 

Before Lance had left Keith had been wondering why the Black Lion had never responded to Lance. Now he realised it always had been.

“Keith,” Shiro said reprovingly. “If you can let me leave Voltron to be with Adam, why can’t you let Lance leave to be with his family? Don’t you think he deserves to be happy? _ ” _

“I guess I’ll have to  _ make  _ him happy, then!” He ends the call to his family’s shocked faces.

Oops. Well, that will be an interesting conversation when he gets back to the garrison.

***

He circles the island twice before he spots the inlet Hunk had marked on a map for him. He has to find Lance, and beg on his knees if needs be. He lands the black lion with a lurch onto soft sand, and he feels the grumble in the back of his mind before he’s deposited unceremoniously into the sand.

Black really is mad at him. He starts striding up the wet sand, before realising he has no idea where he is going. Hunk mentioned a house in the countryside, but he doesn’t know where it is.

Whatever. He’ll just wing it. 

He starts jogging, but he isn’t prepared for the dry sand to give away beneath his feet, and send him falling to the ground. The desert was better than this.

A boy with tanned skin and long wavy hair is standing there, clutching a surfboard. Staring at him laying on the floor. Shit. Keith scrambles up, and pulls off his helmet. He turns to the local.

“….Hi?” Oh, well  _ done  _ Keith. 

“Giant black lion...red armour... you’re looking for Lance right?” The boy asks.

“Uhh...You know Lance?” Has he seriously managed to land the lion within 30 feet of someone who knows Lance? 

“Hm. Lance has a type. Or a least, a type has Lance.” He shoots Keith a shrewd look. “Which is it?”

“Uhh... What?” Keith manages, reeling. The guy snorts.

“Yeah, Lance used to do that to me too. Come on. I’ll show you where he lives.” He walks up the beach, and Keith takes off after him. “I’m Francisco, by the way.”

“Keith,” says Keith. Francisco nods, and stores his surfboard at the edge of the beach.

“How do you know Lance?” Keith asks, scrambling to keep up. How does this guy make walking in sand look so easy?

“We were friends. Sort of. Before he went to America for high school.”

Something about his tone makes Keith raise his eyebrows.

“I didn’t want to get in the way of his dreams. Sometimes people need to grow without you. Sometimes, you have to know when to stop trying and let go. ”

It felt so similar to what Shiro and Krolia had been saying, Keith scowled. “Why would you do that?” 

Let go of Lance? Were these people crazy? As if he was so easy to forget. Two years, and Keith still remembered.

Francisco eyes him thoughtfully. “I guess you’ve got a point there.”

They continue down the coastal track for five minutes before Francisco breaks the silence. 

“So, you’re wearing red armour, is that because of Lance’s lion? Some kind of wearing each other’s colours deal?”

“What? No! He’s in my lion.” Keith splutters, ignoring that he’d thought about Lance wearing black in detail.

“So some kind of sharing each other’s lions deal?”

Keith opens his mouth to protest, but then shuts it.

A denial would be more damning than silence.

The narrow footpath merges with a wider dirt road, and Francisco leads him down the left fork. Slowly, the the road grows steeper and they’re walking up a gentle slope. Gradually, the wild countryside becomes orchard..

They continue up the dirt driveway, past olive trees and berry bushes, and rows and rows of grape vines. Keith can smell the scent of citrus trees somewhere.

The road curves, and suddenly he sees Lance’s childhood home.

A sprawling farmhouse sits atop the hill, with the drive leading right up to it’s door. It’s a large, squat villa, white-washed with colourful shutters on the narrow windows and pale terracotta tiles on its roof. There’s a lush garden surrounding it, and in the distance Keith can see a single cow tied to a fencepost, grazing. There’s a cluster of flower pots on the wide porch, and a collection of mismatched chairs grouped around a small table. The door is wide open, and Francisco walks straight inside, gesturing to Keith to follow.

The porch leads directly into a large and beautiful kitchen. House plants and herb pots spill from nooks and corners, and photos of brown-skinned children adorn the walls. A staircase by the far wall is adorned with string lights, and on the bare wall beside it Keith can see many horizontal notches made in pencil. A height chart. At the large wooden dining table, a woman is humming, and arranging flowers. Blues and yellows. 

“ Francisco! Oh, you must be here to see--” The woman’s voice trails away as she notices Keith. 

“Another time perhaps, Mrs McClain.” Francisco smiles and walks back through the door, along the path to the sea. Keith watches him leave before remembering he’s been left alone with the woman who is most likely Lance’s  _ mother _ .

“Ah… Hello, Mrs McClain. Is… uhh… Lance here?” Keith can feel the sweat on the back of his neck. A bead of it is running down his forehead. Oh God. Why did he think it was a good idea to just fly to Cuba with no plan, no fellow paladins and just barge into Lance’s childhood home? This was why Lance was so important. He really needed someone to tell him when he was being stupid.

She looks at him blankly. “Who?”

Oh. Oh no.

She bursts into laughter, and it sounds so much like Lance Keith has whiplash. “I’m kidding! You should have seen your face. You must be Keith right? Lance told us  _ all  _ about you.”

“He did?” Keith feels bewildered, and inexplicably flattered.

“Of course. Now. Why are you here?” The laughter is gone, and she’s fixed him with a sharp stare. 

As well as his laugh, she has Lance’s blue eyes.

“I’m here to convince Lance to come back to the team.” Keith stands up straight.

She looks at him confusedly. “But surely you can easily find another pilot for the red lion? To form the spaceship?”

“What?” Keith is floored. The red lion hasn’t so much as  _ looked _ at another possible pilot since Lance vanished. Keith attempted to reconnect his mental bond and was snarled at.  _ Snarled _ . Red wouldn’t even let Allura through the barrier.  _ Allura _ .

“I- maybe Lance didn’t explain it right. He was speaking Spanish. But you need five people to fly this “Voltron”, correct? But you’re here on earth now. There are plenty of people who can pilot. You don’t need to take him away from us.”

“What are you talking about? Lance is  _ indispensable  _ to the the team. He’s  _ bonded  _ to the red lion. We couldn’t find a new paladin even if we tried. He’s mastered his bayard more than anyone, and he’s a great fighter.”

“What? Lance didn’t say anything about fighting!”

“I’m sorry, I- I thought Lance would have told you all this. We  _ need  _ him to form Voltron.” Keith says. “He’s my right hand man.”

“He didn’t tell me it was like that.”

“I’m - I’m sorry Mrs McClain.” He raises a hand to her shoulder, but drops it. “He’s just too important. To the team, to the universe.”

Lance’s mother smiles unhappily. Her eyes are so soft and sad and so blue Keith can barely bring himself to meet them. 

“I always knew my boy would leave us for something bigger. He’s had stars in his eyes since the day he was born. I knew he wasn’t dead when he disappeared. When you’re a parent, you just know it. But when he came back… I just thought I had more time with him.”

She turns away to face the wall, and on there is a picture of a younger Lance, grinning wildly on the knee of a man with Lance’s smile. A wilted flower is tucked into the frame.

“You can take him. As long as you treat him well.” 

“Of  _ course _ .” The heat in Keith’s voice surprises even himself, and he feels himself blush. Mrs McClain looks back at him curiously, and whatever she sees makes her grin.

“Ah, so it’s like that, is it?”

“Mrs McClain--” Keith can feel the sweat starting back up again.

“Lance! Come down here!” She hollers up the stairs. He hears an incoherent yell back, undoubtedly Lance, and his heart skips a beat.

Irregular thumps and crashes rumble through the ceiling and Lance swings into view, flinging himself around the staircase bannister.

“What is it m--” Lance stops dead as he spots Keith. He’s changed into an outfit more fitting for the heat, a tank top and shorts. He hasn’t seen Lance look so caught off guard in so long. He can’t take his eyes off him.

“I’ll just be going.” Lance’s mother says knowingly. She pats Lance’s shoulder has she heads past him up the stairs.

“What are you doing here?” Lance asks. 

Keith glares at him. “What do you mean what am I doing here? You abandoned the team somewhere around Jupiter. We’ve been worried sick!”

Lance hunches his shoulders defensively, and goes as if to shove his hands into the pockets of his jeans, before remembering he isn’t wearing any. “I thought my leaving the lion at the garrison made my feelings clear on where I stood with the team.”

“Not really? Don’t you remember the last time a paladin disappeared from a lion? What the hell were you thinking?”

Lance winces. “I-I didn’t think about that -”

“Yeah, damn right you didn’t think.”

“I know! I know, okay. I just…” Lance huffs, and runs a hand through his hair. It sticks up in endearing little curls, and Keith should really not be noticing that when he’s trying to be really mad at Lance right now--

“I just didn’t think it would matter.” 

Keith abruptly stops. “What?”

“You know, if I left the team. It’s not like we don’t have enough paladins. And anyway, Red misses you flying him. You should hear him talk about it. It’s kind of annoying actually. You know, even now I can hear it. Why didn’t you get back in him?”

“Lance, you idiot. Red wouldn’t even let me near his cockpit.”

“What? But--”

“And that’s not the point. Even if you couldn’t fly a lion, we’d still need you.”

“That’s not true.” 

“Lance--”

“It is! Why won’t you be honest? Why are you even here?” He waves his arms for emphasis. Lance’s words are unintentionally biting, but Keith steels himself through them. He’s heard worse. 

“The others are too upset to come!” As Keith says it he realises it’s true. “I don’t know what happened between you and Hunk and Pidge but it’s clearly been going on for far too long. And as for Allura, she’s miserable!” He catches the tail end of a flinch from Lance. He’s hit on something here. “Shiro’s really worried about you too. Lance. What  _ happened  _ while I was gone?”

“Nothing!” Lance yells, eyes narrow and piercing. He crosses his arms and glares at Keith.

“Tell me the  _ truth _ !” Keith yells back. He hates the thickness of his voice, the pricking in his eyes, and Lance is just standing there with his arms folded, like Keith isn’t even his  _ friend _ , like they’re back at the beginning again. 

“You always used to… what changed?” Keith says, and hates how it sounds like his heart is breaking.

Lance’s lip trembles.

“When you left us…” He gulps. “When you joined the blade, I realised that none of you need me. You never did. I’m not useful, I’m not helpful, I’m not wanted. I--” Lance’s voice breaks and Keith aches with it. “I tried, ok? When you left. It really fucking hurt. But I tried to fill the void you left in the team and I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t what anyone needed. I couldn’t help Hunk or Pidge, I couldn’t be what Allura wanted, I couldn’t even save Shiro. I let  _ everyone  _ down.”

“Lance, you didn’t--” Keith interjects, but Lance talks over him, rushing to get the words out.

“I blew it, Keith. Big time.” He looks at Keith, and Keith hates how sincere he looks. “You all deserve someone better, someone you actually would want on the team.”

“Lance, the team wants you,” Keith says, but Lance is staring past him. Staring through him, like he can make the universe and its demands disappear, like Keith isn’t even real.

“ _ I _ want you.” Keith feels like it is torn from his chest, tendons unraveling and blood in his throat as the words leave his lips, and his heart is beating way to fast for such a small moment. It is so loud it must fill the space between them, and in a rush Keith wants to fill it, anything to stop Lance looking away--

Lance isn’t looking away. He’s looking at Keith, and something within surges at Lance’s eyes on him.

“I  _ need  _ you, Lance. You’re incredible. You aren’t just a great pilot and fighter, you’re our glue. You bind us together. But it’s more than that. I-- when I left--” His pulse is thundering in his ears.

“I missed you. I missed you so much, Lance. I’ve felt this way for so long--” Keith swallows the lump in his throat and looks at his feet. He has nothing that Lance wants, everything he has is here, on this beautiful island of blue skies and bluer ocean, sand and surf and a family home glowing white in the sun and splattered with primary colour.

“It’s been over two years for me. I never stopped thinking about you.” He whispers and it feels like the end. 

Lance is his binary star, shining bright and close but still light years away. Maybe the expansion of the universe is dragging them further apart, mere remnants of a supernova. 

Once it felt like they used to orbit each other, but Keith’s never been sure. Lance dances out of reach and Keith stumbles behind him. Changes the tune and Keith’s breathless trying to keep up. 

Maybe leaving team Voltron stopped the music. Maybe he was flung so far out of orbit when he joined the Blade he can never return. He thought they’d been making progress, on that long trip home. But Keith was always one step behind.

Two years may have been a long time, but Keith still danced after Lance.

Lance’s feet shuffle in of the corner of his eye. Keith raises his eyes. 

Red is pooling in Lance’s cheeks and his mouth is comically wide. It’s so startlingly  _ Lance  _ Keith can’t help but grin.

 

“W-why are you smiling like that?” Lance tries for indignation, but fails miserably.

 

Keith acts on instinct, and reaches for Lance’s hand. Lance doesn’t pull away, so Keith pulls him closer. Their foreheads are touching.

 

“I think we make a  _ great _ team.” Keith says, smiling. 

 

Lance’s answering smile, slightly wobbly but full of hope, makes his heart swell.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Yeah.” He tilts his head to one side and pulls Lance into a hug, still clutching his hand. It would look like they were dancing and the music stopped, leaving them standing in place. 

 

Keith didn’t care. Lance was in his arms. 

 

If it’s the end, it’s the beginning of something new.

 

“Cradle him in your arms Keith!” A child’s voice called from behind them and Keith jumped out of his skin. They sprang apart, but Keith made sure to keep holding Lance’s hand.

 

“I told you not to tell anyone I told you that, Luca!” Lance said to the little boy poking his head through the banisters. A disembodied chuckle from the top of the stairs gave Keith the nasty suspicion Lance’s entire family might be listening in.

 

“You remembered?” Keith says, affronted, deciding to resolutely ignore the growing whispers.

 

Lance looks at him shyly and Keith feels his indignation ebb away. 

 

“How could I not?” He says, his eyes soft.

 

Keith smiled. Definitely not the end. 

  


**Author's Note:**

> this hasn't been beta read and i got sick of reading it through at some point, so you may find grammar errors and i apologise. feel free to criticise/point out mistakes
> 
> The Cuban references are based on my spanish family members...I am not from Cuba nor any other spanish speaking country so I chose to keep everyone speaking english under the assumption Lance is from a bilingual household and language changes based on who's in the room. Don't @me on that unless you grew up in an english/spanish household please. Feel free to @me on anything else pls. i also fluffed the geography a bit as I wanted Lance to have a home which was quite isolated in the countryside and would explain his ability to milk a cow, but was still close to a beach if not his favourite one. This is also set in the vld future of "everything is fine" which is obviously a cop out but man this was already at 4k and im tired
> 
> find me on https://pilotsred.tumblr.com/ !!! i post my writing/ updates there sometimes......headcanons.....this is the first thing i've posted for a WHILE so uh.......feedback appreciated
> 
> i also just want to give a big shoutout to sar, for constantly and consistently enabling me to write 4k of dumb gushy klance. MWUAH!!! i literally would not have posted this without his support he's awesome


End file.
